theatre in london
 

We are going to London in late April and wanted to see a few musicals or plays. I have looked at London.com for the upcoming theatre info, but wanted to get Fodorite's suggestions as they are so helpful. First choice would be a musical, but am open. Thank you.

Hello Cici

How about Mamma Mia - the Abba musical which is one of the most popular musicals whether you like the music of Abba or not. It is a really clever show the way they work the songs around the storyline.

Only trouble is it is difficult to get reductions on the basic ticket price

Everybody's tastes are different and some people, for example, attend musicals say on Broadway and don't want to see the same musicals yada yada yada.

Recommendations now include Mary Poppins but my number one recommendations is Billy Elliot which seems to be the hottest ticket in town. The young people in the leads are stupdedous...interestingly enough there has been some controvery recently on London theatre boards as they are currently phasing in multi racial Billy's...an Oriental kid debuted in the part last week and a black kid as well as an American kid are said to be just about ready to do the part. The problem with the part, of course, is the short shelf life a Billy has and th einability, due to child labour laws, to have kids work 7 days a week in the part. No matter. Neither of the above as well as Mamma Mia are ever available for reduced price tickets although both Mary Poppins and Mamma Mia for the most part have tickets available now.

Les Miz and Phantom have been around for a while and along with the Producers they are almost always available at TKTS for either 50% or 33% discounts. We will Rock You is closing soon, don't remember how soon but you might enjoy that.

Or you might go for something very British sort of a musical but not dominated by the music such as Blood Brothers, always available at TKTS.

If time is limited, I would shoot for Billy Elliot (get your tickets in advance by calling the theatre), Mary Poppins and Mamma Mia in that order as neither BE or MP are playing yet on Broadway but one would assume both will be on Broadway in the fairly near future.

However, as an interesting footnote, while Mamma Mia did very well on Broadway and is still there, both Woman in White and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which had good runs in London flopped on Broadway and both were gone within 7 months.

So who knows.

I saw Les Miserables in 2002 and The Lion King in 2005. Both were fabulous! Based on what I've read about it, I'd also recommend Blood Brothers. Have you checked www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk? Lots of helpful information. You can break down the complete listings into genres.

You may also want to look at this site:

http://www.londontheatre.co.uk/ where you can also read reviews.

Personally, I thought some of the diction in "Poppins" was poor, especially in a production in which the players were miked. But children, of course, love it and it is still going strong.

I second the rec for Billy Elliot. Probably the best I've seen in a long time. Lion King, Mamma Mia, and the Producers are also excellent. Blood Brothers very good.
If you are into comedies, there is a sort of musical comedy, Glorious. It is about a wealthy lady who fancies herself an opera singer. Lots of singing throughout, none of it on key. Very funny.

Then there are the old stand-bys, Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera if you haven;t seen them yet.

As a FYI, I saw half price tickets for a few showings of the Producers and Les Mis during the week in early March 2006. There were also a few 25% off tix for Producers. teh seats for the Producers were good but not great. Glorious was always on TKTS as was Blood Brothers.
Billy Elliot still consistently sells out. It's actually better to try to book ahead of time since the lines can be long at the theatre. Again best days to get a ticket would be a weekday.

The Woman in Black is phenomenal.

As a musical theatre buff I would recommend Lion King for the experience, The Producers, Les Miserables and although I haven't seen it Billy Ellliot it continually gets rave reviews... I would avoid like the plague anything by Webber.. which is my personal opinion. We did see Phantom in London and I would have asked for my $$ back.. we had just seen Miss Saigon on a matinee.. Some musicals like Mama Mia are made for the masses or as they are saying are "juke box musicals".. Yes, we are theatre snobs..lol annd have traveled previously for a week in London for theatre.

It really is too bad when snobbery gets in the way of things.

ParrottMom: &quot;<i>have traveled previously for a week in London for theatre.</i>&quot;

A <u>whole week</u> - oh my! I'll just give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn't mean to come across quite the way you did.

mama Mia may be for the &quot;masses&quot; but it is a wonderful night out. BTW Miss Saigon closed nearly 7 years ago so how current could your info be????

cicifromm: there are so many great shows running you can see several - Billy Elliot would probably be my 1st choice, followed by Mary Poppins and Mama Mia for musicals. For straight plays - I usually just wait til I see what is on offer at TKTS

cicifromm, lucky you! We have just returned from London and took in two shows while there: Blood Brothers was fabulous (very funny, very sad, great performances, good music, appealed to everyone in our group including a 9 year old...the total package! plus discount tickets easily available - it gets no better!). Some in our group saw Mary Poppins and loved it, while we went to We Will Rock You - cheesy, but fun...story line borrows a bit too heavily from Mad Max, emphasis on newer Queen music when I love old Queen, no Mig Ayesa (although he appears in all the posters - clever marketers!), but discount tickets available and it was a fun night out...but I wish I'd gone to Mary Poppins!

check out the national theatre. the productions are usually much better than the commercial theatres of the north end. tourists and out of towners go to the west end but locals go to the NT.

We saw Les Mis in March. Great voices and fun to watch the way they work with the revolving stage.

Billy Elliott..but order well in advance.it might even be too late

We loved &quot;Glorious&quot;.. a rather adult semi=musical!

While I can't imagine asking for my money back for Phantom of the Opera (and yes, I consider myself a theatre snob too and have traveled for weeks and weeks for London theatre), I agree with much of what has been said above. Billy Elliot really is worth seeing. Even theatre snobs can often enjoy theatre designed for the masses, if they're willing to enjoy themselves rather than look down their noses at the idea of theatre as entertainment.

Want to branch out a little? A new production of the &quot;lost&quot; but wonderful Jerry Herman musical Mack and Mabel is about to open. By the same director as the current Broadway version of Sweeney Todd, it's to be done in a similar style of actors/musicians on stage. And it will star the wonderful Janie Dee along with David Soul.

A highly respected production of Sunday in the Park with George is making a transfer to the West End and should also be worth seeing, but not sure that performances will start in late April.

The non-musical event of the summer may be Hay Fever starring Judy Dench and Peter Bowles -- how could Noel Coward get any better than that for casting?

And for something with a little more &quot;meat&quot; what about the acclaimed production of Blackbird, a very dark show.

Maureen Lipman closes her wonderful production of Glorious on April 22. Too soon for your arrival?

And I'm regretting that we'll arrive too late for the Donmar Warehouse production of Paedra, which should be wonderful. That will be playing while you're there, but like any Donmar show, you need to book directly well ahead -- like now.